Combining linguistic theories in a Minimalist Machine
Jason M Ginsburg, Sandiway Fong · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2019
This chapter describes a Minimalist Machine that utilizes Chomsky’s (2001) bottom-up phase-based system to automatically construct detailed derivations of examples from important work in the Minimalist Program. We have successfully modeled expletive constructions and multiple agreement, thematization/extraction, that-trace effects and subject vs. object wh-movement, and relative clauses. We present particular modifications necessary to combine the linguistic theories that account for these target constructions into a single unified theory. We demonstrate how a computer model is ideal for incorporating core elements of a variety of theories into a single unified model that we can verify produces all target constructions. This is an important and necessary step towards making the Minimalist Machine viable because there is no guarantee that theories in the same framework are compatible, since they might rely on contradictory assumptions.